It is desirable within the airline industry to provide efficient aircraft servicing and ground mobility. Time involved in taxiing to and from gates and in performing various servicing tasks, is directly related to the amount of time an aircraft is able to spend in flight. The more an aircraft is in flight the higher the potential profits associated with that aircraft.
Servicing an aircraft includes passenger boarding and de-planning of the aircraft, cargo servicing, galley servicing, and passenger compartment servicing, which includes cabin cleaning. Timing, sequencing, fueling, air supply, potable water supply, waste water drainage, electrical supply, brake cooling, communications links, and the manner in which aircraft services are performed and provided regulate the turnaround time of an aircraft.
Currently, servicing is performed utilizing passenger-bridges and service vehicles for passenger servicing, galley servicing, cabin cleaning, fueling, air supply, electricity supply, waste water disposal, potable water refurbishment, and cargo handling. Typical passenger-bridges are capable of extending, through the use of telescoping sections, to mate with the aircraft. Passengers servicing refers to the enplaning and deplaning over passenger-bridges on a port side of the aircraft. Vehicles for galley servicing, cabin cleaning, fueling, waste water disposal, potable water refurbishment, and electricity supply are provided at points on either side of the aircraft. The passenger servicing task is performed sequentially with the galley and cabin cleaning servicing in order to prevent interference with passengers and servicing crewmembers.
The potential for interference with passengers and servicing crewmembers exists in forward portions of the aircraft since the passengers deplane in the forward portion of the aircraft and passengers and servicing crewmembers use the same aisles of the aircraft. Servicing crewmembers are able to service aft portions of the aircraft, when an aircraft requires such servicing, simultaneously with deplaning of the aircraft, as no interference exists during the deplaning between passengers and crew members in the aft portion of the aircraft.
Three main types of airline bridges currently exist for passenger enplaning and deplaning of an aircraft. The three types are an apron drive bridge, a radial bridge, and a fixed pedestal bridge. The apron drive bridge is the most complex due to its rotating and telescoping capabilities, which allow for some freedom in parking location of an aircraft on an apron. The radial bridge and the fixed pedestal bridge require that the aircraft be parked at a specific spot on the apron. The radial bridge is rotated to mate a bridgehead to a passenger door. The fixed pedestal bridge is the least expensive of the three main types of bridges. The fixed pedestal bridge has a fixed main portion and an adjustable bridgehead. The pedestal bridge has a bridgehead that retracts when an aircraft is approaching an apron and extends when the aircraft is parked, at which time the bridgehead docks to an aircraft passenger door.
The use of galley servicing, cabin cleaning, fueling, air supply, electric supply, waste water disposal, potable water refurbishment, and cargo handling vehicles can be time consuming due to the steps involved in servicing the aircraft and the aircraft servicing location availability. The servicing vehicles typically need to be loaded at a location that is a considerable distance from and driven over to an airline terminal of interest, mated to the aircraft, and unloaded to service the aircraft. Aircraft servicing location availability is limited since most vehicle servicing of the aircraft can only be performed from the starboard side of the aircraft to prevent interference with the passenger bridge on the port side of the aircraft. The hydrant fuel, aft cabin cleaning, and aft lavatory service trucks can access the port side. Mating of the servicing vehicles to the aircraft is also undesirable since an aircraft can potentially be damaged.
Current servicing of an aircraft is not efficient and current bridge designs are not physically applicable to newly introduced faster flying aircraft. For example, a sonic cruiser is being studied by The Boeing Company that has a canard wing in an upper forward portion of the aircraft, which interferes with current passenger bridge designs. Also, due to the relationship of aircraft servicing doors and aircraft wings, long turnaround times are required for servicing the sonic cruiser. The longer time spent servicing the aircraft on the ground negates the benefit of the faster flying capability in terms of overall aircraft utilization. System inefficiency of existing infrastructure and current aircraft fleet present restrictions encountered by the Sonic Cruiser.
Also, current systems and methods used for ground support of commercial aircraft are security limited. It is difficult to provide and maintain adequate and appropriate security with regard to an aircraft, due to the number of different services accessing the aircraft at multiple locations along either side of the aircraft while at a terminal gate.
Additionally ground support services can also adversely affect passenger experience with flying, as a result of the somewhat chaotic fashion in which ground support services are currently provided.
It is therefore desirable to provide improved aircraft servicing systems and methods with increased servicing efficiency and aircraft security, which also provide an improved passenger flying experience. It is also desirable that the improved servicing systems address both current infrastructure incompatibility limitations related to the introduction of aircraft and other inefficiencies associated with current aircraft and systems.